Web 2.0 Sites List 2026: 117 of 306 Still Work

Web 2.0 lists have a strange problem. The famous names at the top are mostly fine. It is the long tail underneath that has quietly died.

I published a web 2.0 list on this site in 2019, and like most lists it kept growing without anyone clicking the old entries. So this time I clicked all of them.

I pulled every site named on at least two of 12 web 2.0 lists ranking on Google, and loaded all 306. 117 are real, working platforms. The rest are closed, dead, hijacked, or were never a place to publish in the first place.

In this guide, I'll break down:

• What web 2.0 sites are, in plain words
• What I found when I loaded all 306, including Typepad and Webs.com
• Which web 2.0 sites still give a followed link, from the rel I read on live pages
• 121 platforms that still work, grouped by what you can build on each
• How to use them without building a link wheel that hurts you

It is written for bloggers, small business owners and SEOs who want a clean list, not a shortcut.

What are web 2.0 sites?

Web 2.0 sites are free platforms where anyone can create a blog, a site or a profile and publish their own content.

The term comes from Tim O'Reilly's 2005 essay What Is Web 2.0, which described the shift from websites you only read to websites built by their users. Blogs, wikis and social networks were the examples.

In SEO the word means something narrower. A "web 2.0" is a free property you build on someone else's platform: a Blogger blog, a WordPress.com site, a Wix page. Each one can link back to your own site.

That is why lists of them exist. It is also why so many of the lists are full of junk.

How many web 2.0 sites still work in 2026?

About four in ten. I took 12 lists ranking in US Google results for "web 2.0 sites list", pulled every site each one named, and kept the 306 named on at least two lists. Then I loaded each one and labelled what it actually serves.

"Not a place you can publish" covers sites like Zoho, Evernote, Goodreads and Wikipedia. Some are useful tools. None of them give you a page to build on, and Wikipedia removes promotional links fast.

The 10 in the last row resolve but did not answer from India on two tries, so I have not called them dead.

My own old list did better than most, but not well enough. Of the 116 sites on the previous version of this page, 73 still work. Eleven had closed or changed and three were dead.

Which famous web 2.0 sites have closed?

The head of every list is healthy. These are the 16 sites named on 8 or more of the 12 lists, and 15 of them work:

Typepad is the one to remove from your list. It shut down on 30 September 2025, and the domain now sends visitors to a Network Solutions page.

Further down, the closures pile up. Webs.com, named on 7 lists, redirects to a Vistaprint page that says it has been retired.

A few more I confirmed:

• Posterous, which Twitter shut down in April 2013, now returns a "No such app" error.
• Squidoo moved into HubPages in 2014. The domain redirects there.
• Multiply.com redirects to System1, an ad technology company.
• My Opera blogs are gone. my.opera.com redirects to the Opera company blog.
• SimpleSite redirects to the hosting company one.com.
• Tripod and pen.io no longer load. Tripod's domains do not resolve, and pen.io returns a server error.

Four domains were hijacked. CiteULike, YouSayToo and Ello, once real platforms, now serve online casino pages. A link from any of them tells Google your site keeps bad company.

Which web 2.0 sites are dofollow?

Fewer than the lists claim, and almost none of them show how they know. I opened live pages on each platform and read the rel attribute on the links inside.

The WordPress.com, dev.to and Reddit rows come from the same check on my social bookmarking list. The Wix and Strikingly rows are one free site each, so treat them as a sample, not a rule.

The pattern makes sense. On a site builder, the page is yours, so the builder does not add nofollow to your links. On a shared platform like Medium or Reddit, the platform controls the page and protects itself.

Two honest limits. Google treats nofollow and ugc as hints, not strict rules, so a followed link is not a promise of ranking help. And platforms change these settings, so check your own link after you publish.

121 web 2.0 sites that still work in 2026

These are the 105 distinct platforms behind the 117 working domains in my check, plus 16 from my old list that still pass the same test. I grouped them by what you can actually build on each one.

Blogging and writing platforms (28)

You get a blog or a profile where you publish posts. These are the classic web 2.0 properties, and the only ones worth writing real articles on.

Free website builders (38)

You get a whole site on a free subdomain. Worth it only if you will keep the site alive with real pages, because an abandoned one-page site helps nobody.

Document and slide sites (9)

Upload a PDF, an ebook or a deck. The description box usually holds your link.

Photo, video, audio and design sites (20)

These suit you only if you make that kind of content. A profile link here is a bonus, not the point.

Communities and social sites (13)

Real people decide what gets seen here. Join, take part, and link only where it helps.

Profiles and link pages (13)

A profile with one link, not a place to publish. Fill them in properly once, then forget them.

Do web 2.0 backlinks still work in 2026?

Yes, but only the real ones, and not for the reason the old guides gave.

• A home for your content. A Blogger or WordPress.com blog with real posts is a small asset that can rank, send visitors and carry a followed link to your site.
• Brand presence. Profiles on LinkedIn, GitHub, Medium and the platforms your audience uses help search engines and AI answer engines connect your name to your site.
• Referral visits. A good post on dev.to or a useful pin on Pinterest can send people who actually read.

What does not work is volume. Hundreds of one-post blogs with spun text are the exact pattern Google's spam policies call link spam. The "web 2.0 backlink packages" sold in bulk are built that way.

My position on this has not changed: links only survive core updates when they are built for the audience first. A web 2.0 property nobody would visit is not built for anyone.

Should you build a web 2.0 link wheel?

No. A link wheel is a ring of thin web 2.0 blogs that link to each other and then to your money page.

It was popular around 2010, when links from Blogger and Tumblr were easy to collect in bulk. It stopped working once Google got good at spotting networks of thin pages that exist only to pass links.

It is pure risk. You spend hours on blogs nobody reads, and the pattern is easy to detect. If a seller offers a "web 2.0 link wheel" or "50 high DA web 2.0 backlinks", that is the product to avoid.

How do you build a web 2.0 property the right way?

This is the routine I would follow.

1. Pick two or three platforms, not fifty. WordPress.com or Blogger for a real blog, plus one platform your audience already uses, like dev.to, Medium or Pinterest.
2. Give it a reason to exist. A blog about one narrow topic, with posts you would happily show a customer. Five real posts beat fifty thin ones.
3. Write fresh content. Do not copy posts from your own site. Duplicate pages compete with your original.
4. Link where it helps the reader. One link from a relevant post to a relevant page on your site reads naturally. A keyword-stuffed link in every post is the spam pattern.
5. Keep it alive. Add a post every few weeks. An abandoned blog with one post from years ago adds nothing.
6. Check your link after posting. Right-click it, choose Inspect, and read the rel value yourself.

If you want links that move rankings, the work is earning them from real sites. My link building strategies guide covers the approaches that hold up.

More free link-building guides

Web 2.0 properties are one small piece. Here are my other lists, checked the same way where I have rebuilt them:

• Article submission sites: 39 of 495 still work
• Social bookmarking sites: 58 of 488 still work
• 182 directory submission sites: business listings that still accept new sites
• 111 blog commenting sites: active blogs with open comment forms
• Competitor backlink analysis: see where your rivals actually get their links

Final take

Web 2.0 lists look healthier than most link-building lists, because the big names at the top still work. The trouble is the tail: closed services, dead domains and old brands now selling casino bonuses.

Out of 306 sites, 117 still work. Build on two or three of them, give each one a real reason to exist, and keep it updated.

Skip the link wheels and bulk packages, and read the rel on your own links before you believe anyone's dofollow claim.